


The Sacrificial Lamb

by Kariki



Series: Hartmon Week 2016 [3]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Earth-2, Hart is not alright, Hartley is just a cinnamon roll with mind control powers, Hartmonweek2016, Have I mentioned Reverb is evil?, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, Killing one's abusers, M/M, No magic cure all, Rape Recovery, Reverb is NOT nice, Torture Recovery, also I'm horrible at tenses sorry, because he is, off screen rape, on screen death, poor Hartley
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-07-10 07:08:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6972274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kariki/pseuds/Kariki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Written for Hartmonweek2016, Prompt #3: Earth 2)</p><p>It was quite simple in Reverb's mind, a simple truth:  Hartley Rathaway belonged to him... whether he wants to or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1 - Francisco 'Reverb' Ramon

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, this is dark but it's not graphic. I can't stress this enough: Implied Non-con/Rape. Earth-2 Cisco is NOT A NICE PERSON. At all. In any way. As much as Cisco is nice, Reverb is twice as bad. He's a really bad guy.
> 
> he's bad.

Cisco Ramon had wanted the heir to the Rathaway fortune the moment he first laid eyes on him... in more ways than one. Quite honestly, the ransom they could get for the twink was almost staggering. Sadly, that little scheme didn't work out. Turns out, having a Particle Accelerator explode and send waves of dark matter coursing through the city can really put a damper on your kidnapping plans.

But fate works in mysterious ways. 

That night, dragging the struggling nerd toward the waiting van, his hand firmly clamped over that tempting mouth, fate had intervened and it was _glorious_.

The explosion had knocked him off his feet, sending him and his prisoner to the ground and filled Cisco's head with visions of the future, of who he really was, what he was meant to be... what he could now do.

But he hadn't been the only one changed.

The visions still in his head, Cisco had staggered to his feet. A few members of his small crew had left the van and had run over when they saw him fall - not to offer any help to him, of course, but to grab the rich kid before he got away. 

It was a pointless attempt.

"Let go of me!" Rathaway had screamed and, instantly, the hands holding onto him released. Rathaway, blood running from his ears and tears in his eyes, had stumbled back, shocked at being obeyed. Cisco's crew had stared, stunned by their bodies disobedience. 

But Hartley Rathaway wasn't stupid. He turned and ran, back toward the crowd of people, toward the sound of sirens, and to safety.

Cisco had let him go. He already knew where and when to find him, knew what he had to do. He knew he had already won.

* * * 

Cisco knew he was lucky when it came to his powers. Due to their nature, his mastery of them was immediate and all-encompassing. He knew every facet, every trick, all within seconds.

Everyone else had to learn their own gifts the old fashioned way and that gave him time.

Cisco watched as meta after meta started appearing out of the woodwork. Most he ignored for the small time upstarts that they were but those who held actual promise, he recruited... or killed if they refused his kind offer. And he waited.

It was six months after the explosion when the rumors of a meta who could control people's minds started to circulate. It was time.

"Let them go." 

Cisco could hear the _command_ in Hartley's voice and saw the fear and frustration when it was ignored. He had months to prepare for this where as the Pied Piper was just playing this tune for the first time.

"Sorry, Sweetheart," Cisco, now more commonly know as Reverb, tsked. He reached up and tapped his ear, drawing attention to the earbud wedged in place. "I came prepared for your little trick."

Oh, yes, there was fear in those blue eyes now. Wonderful.

"I had plenty of time to get ready for this," Reverb walked forward, past the bound figures of the Rathaway family and toward their son. To his credit, Hartley didn't back away. "In all honestly, I could have come for you at anytime but I wanted the challenge... such as it was."

"What do you want?" 

"Isn't it obvious?" Reverb asked, spreading his hands as though revealing a parlor trick. "You."

Reverb watched the gears turning in the brunette's head, watched as those blue eyes flickering between him and his parents and the little girl wedged between them. It was almost sweet.

"Fine," Hartley said, only the faintest of tremors in his voice. "Just let them go and... and I'll let you kill me..."

"Kill you?" Reverb repeated, having wanted to say the line ever since he first saw it. "Who said I would kill you?"

Hartley paled further, a trembling starting in his hands. Reverb saw him try to swallow back the fear. "... Just let them go. If it's just me you want then don't hurt them."

"Of course, Sweetheart," Reverb smiled, stopping less than a foot from Hartley. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a strip of dark, thick leather with what could only be a fingerprint scanner on the clasp. Hartley stared at the collar, a sick look on his face. 

"I made it just for you," Reverb continued, opening the collar by pressing his thumb against the scanner. "Some of its features are more obvious than others. You won't be able to take it off, as it's set to my prints only. If you or anyone else tried, it'll send out a sonic blast that won't stop until I personally disable it. But that's a last resort defense. I'm more in favor of preventative measures..."

Hartley tore his eyes away from the collar and looked into the blue glow of Reverb's goggles. There were tears in his eyes.

"There's a series of sensors laced throughout," Reverb continued, grinning, "If you utter even one coherent word, the sonic blasts will go off. You try to use your powers, you lose your precious little hearing aids..." Reverb shrugged. "Also, excruciating and debilitating pain."

"Why are you doing this?" Hartley asked, his voice cracking.

"Because," Reverb reached forward, touching Hartley's chin in a deceptively gentle way, forcing his head back. He wrapped the collar around his neck and clicked it into place. He gave the skin of Hartley's throat a caress before grabbing him by the back of the neck, pulling him closer until their lips were almost touching. "You belong to me."


	2. Chapter 2 - Cisco 'Vibe' Ramon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cisco is kidnapped and he wakes up in Reverb's personal dungeon with a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, look, I updated!
> 
> Also: WARNING: NON-GRAPHIC OFFSCREEN RAPE, ON SCREEN DEATH, ON SCREEN BEATING/BLOOD, THREATS OF MORE BEATINGS/RAPE
> 
> Reverb is not nice. Have I said that? He's not nice.

There were two things about being a hero and saving people that Cisco hoped he would never get used to and that was waking up with a massive, head wound-induced headache and waking up tied to a chair.

If the splitting headache and the tightness around his wrists were anything to go by, he was currently in that exact situation.

Great.

Cisco groaned and slowly opened his eyes, flinching as the light hit them. He blinked a few times and the room cleared around him.

It wasn’t particularly bright but it was more than enough to see by. 

He was in what could possibly pass for a kitchen though there was no stove or fridge to be found, just a sink and a kitchen table with two chairs, one of which was the one he was currently occupying. The walls were gray cement blocks, not even painted to hide the roughness of the material. The floor was the same: what floor that wasn’t covered in old rugs was made of cement.

Homey, it was not.

Cisco licked his lips and closed his eyes, feeling the skin of his forehead pull as his brows furrowed. Dried blood, he guessed, if his headache wasn’t enough of a clue.

The last thing he remembered was waiting in Harry’s office in this world’s STAR Labs.

They had been waiting for Barry to get back… then Harry left for…for what? Supplies! Or something? Information? It was something that should have only taken a few minutes and Cisco had wanted time alone to snoop around Harry’s computer and other gadgets… until the other man expressly forbade him from even looking at all toys surrounding him. 

He remembered walking around the room, not sulking in any way, and then…

This.

Cisco opened his eyes, prepared for the light this time, and straightened up to look around. It was definitely some kind of kitchen, a kitchenette maybe?, but there was no windows at all and just the industrial lighting on the ceiling to see by. There was only one door as well, open and just to his right.

It was like a dungeon and this was all kinds of not good.

“Okay,” Cisco muttered to himself, looking around the cramped room again. “You got this, Cisco… just gotta… gotta find a way out.”

He glanced down at his hands to see what was tying him down. Zip ties. Not great but maybe if… if he could pull them tight enough and rubbed them against the chair hard enough, maybe it’d be enough friction to -

Someone was coming.

Cisco could hear the clinking of dishes and the soft pad of footsteps coming toward him. In the door way, he could see a shadow approaching.

Maybe, at least, he can get some answers, find out what they wanted with him. Best case scenario? They just wanted him to get to Harry and they were completely unaware that he had powers of his own. He could work with that. He could escape with that. It was something, at least.

“Hey,” Cisco called out, his voice cracking from disuse. How long had he been out?

A man appears in the doorway, a washcloth and a bowl of steaming water in his hands, wearing a black button down shirt that was too big on him and almost nothing else. Around the man’s neck was a thick collar and under the collar was a ring of bruises.

“Hartley,” Cisco croaked as he watched as the other man padded into the room, his blue eyes were focused on the floor. The shirt barely covered anything and Cisco felt bile rise up in his throat as he saw more bruises where none should ever be.

This world’s Hartley knelt down in front of him and set the bowl down. He wet the cloth and, finally, looked up at Cisco. There was another bruise on his right cheek and a barely healed cut on Hartley’s lower lip.

“Hartley, what… what…” Cisco started but didn’t know what question to ask first: What happened? What’s going on?

Cisco winced as Hartley pressed the cloth to the cut on Cisco’s forehead, gently dabbing the wound clean. Cisco winced as the cloth was pulled back, now red with his blood.

“Hartley,” Cisco started again, finally deciding on the most important question. “Hart, are you okay?”

Hartley didn’t answer, his eyes focused on his work, wringing out the cloth before bringing it back up to Cisco’s forehead.

“He can’t hear you.”

Cisco jerked his head up and met his own gaze or, at least, something close to it.

Those were his eyes, that was his face, but that was where the similarities ended. The other man stood leaning against the door frame with crossed arms, his eyes dark with liner and his skin and lips oddly bloodless, as he smirked over at them. He reached up and tapped his right ear, amused.

“Deaf as a doorknob,” the smirk widened, “Well, now, anyway. He can read lips though… but he still won’t answer you.”

The other Cisco tapped his throat now.

Cisco swallowed hard.

“Y-You’re…”

“Francisco Ramon,” the other him took a mocking bow. “Though I prefer Reverb.”

In front of him, Hartley gave no indication that he realized the other Cisco was there as he leaned up to continue cleaning Cisco’s face. It gave Cisco a very good look at the bruising around the collar as well as healed over scars just underneath it. He could see other scars on the other man’s skin, tiny cuts that have healed but a particularly deep scar leading into Hartley’s ear.

This was… very much not good.

“What…”

Reverb pushed himself away from the door and walked over to them, laying a hand on Hartley’s shoulder. The other man froze for a moment and glanced up at Reverb. When Reverb didn’t even look down at him, Hartley sat back onto his heels and set the bloody cloth into the blood water.

“I really am sorry about the arrangements,” Reverb waved his hand toward the cement walls all around them, “but you really can’t be too careful nowadays. Your time line is oddly… fuzzy, to me. It’s intriguing.”

In front of him, Hartley tenses ever so slightly and Cisco could see that Reverb’s hand has moved from Hartley’s shoulder over to his neck, caressing the collar. Cisco wonders if that was a warning or a reminder.

“What do you want?” Cisco asked, wishing his voice sounded stronger than it did. He got the feeling showing any weakness in front of this version of himself wasn’t a smart idea. “Why’d you kidnap me?”

“I’ve had visions of you, my friend,” Reverb said, his fingers moving up into Hartley’s hair. Hartley remained still. “Well, visions of you and your world. It’s interesting… I know I’m viewing your world and yet things are muddied and some things are clear. I’ve actually been wanting to meet you for quite sometime but with Zoom trying to control all travel between worlds, well,” Reverb scoffed, “That’s a particular shark I’m not up to poking just yet.”

“Lucky I decided to come to you then,” Cisco said darkly. Just his luck.

“Quite,” Reverb grinned. “I think, Cisco, me and you? We got some things in common.”

Between them, Hartley sucked in a sharp breath and it took a moment for Cisco to see why. The fingers in Hartley’s hair had tightened, pulling at the strands and were starting to pull Hartley’s head back, exposing his throat. Finally, Hartley’s head was pulled back as far as Reverb wanted and the man stared up at Reverb, his face carefully expressionless.

It made Cisco want to throw up.

Reverb glanced down at Hartley, examining him as he forced the other into an strained position. Suddenly, he released Hartley, pushing him down and to the side. He pointed at the door and, after Hartley glanced up at him, he slowly climbed to his feet. Looking as ill as Cisco felt, Hartley gathered up the bowl of brownish-red water and left the room.

Reverb watched Hartley leave, smirking, before turning to look back down at Cisco.

“I saw you with him, you know,” Reverb said, kneeling down in front of him, taking Hartley’s place. “I saw into one of those muddied time lines and I saw you. I saw _me_. He tried to get away from you and you stopped him. Hurt him until he begged you to stop.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Cisco hissed, his hands gripping the armrests he was tied to. “And that time line never happened…”

“It did at one point,” Reverb waved Cisco’s protest off. “You wanted to do it to, I could tell that as well. I saw other time lines. I’ve you kissing him and I’ve seen you killing him. He really does bring the extremes out in us, doesn’t he?”

“I don’t know what you mean,” Cisco said thickly.

“You’re powerful, Vibe,” Reverb grinned down, his lined eyes bright. “Together we’d be unstoppable. We’d have everything we could ever want, anyone we want. Any version of anyone we want. No one could stop us, they wouldn’t be able to.”

Cisco closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. He still felt sick but now there was added fear and anger… and not all of it was for himself.

He opened his eyes and stared deep into Reverb’s matching gaze.

“Are you Cloud City Vadering me right now?”

Reverb snorts and shakes his head.

“I am offering you the chance of a lifetime, Vibe.” Reverb glanced back at the door Hartley had disappeared through. “I saw that time line, Cisco. I saw you enjoy it… that anger in you, at him and at everything.” Reverb looked back to him, an almost manic gleam in his eyes. “We could be so powerful, Cisco, our powers working together. He’d never defy you again…”

“You’re disgusting,” Cisco bit out, wishing, for once, his power was something a bit different. Acid spit sounded nice right about now.

“You enjoyed it,” Reverb said again with a sneering laugh. “Even if that time line was changed, I know you saw it. Perhaps you need to see it again.”

Reverb’s hand shot out and grabbed Cisco’s shoulder in a bruising grip. They both sucked in a sharp breath as their vision swirled and turned blue.

Cisco had seen that alternative time line Barry had changed and it had been a trippy experience. Hartley’s explosive escape and his recapture, his fight with him outside of STAR Labs, Cisco’s dog whistle of an invention, the escape from the police department and, most trippy of all, his complete and utter absent afterward. No Hartley there to give advice on metas, no Hartley there to help build weapons against said metas, no Hartley crashing on his couch once he ‘escaped’ the pipeline, no terror at Not-Wells holding a vibrating hand to Hartley’s chest until they backed off, no hug of relief when the singularity was closed… it was all gone, never happened with the except that it did.

But this wasn’t what he saw now.

This wasn’t the Hartley he knew, it was the Hartley of this world. This Hartley with haunted eyes and bruised flesh, this Hartley with scars around his throat from the collar that… that Cisco himself was taking off him.

He could feel the stiff leather in his hands, how very heavy it was, and saw the bright shining of hope in this Hartley’s eyes.

“No!” The vision ended as abruptly as it began.

Cisco blinked his eyes, trying to clear the vision from his mind, when Reverb’s fist connected with his cheek.

Cisco grunted at the sudden pain and the chair wobbled under him as Reverb struck him again. He yelped as the other man grabbed him by the hair, steadying the chair while pulling him up close to his face.

“He is mine,” Reverb growled, his voice dripping with venom. All friendliness Reverb might have been trying to show was gone, and his face was nothing short of evil. “You are not taking him from me! No one is!”

He shoved Cisco back. The chair wobbled again and fell backwards. Cisco’s head to hit the hard cement floor under him, making his see stars.

Cisco groaned and watched as Reverb sneered down at him before turning and storming from the room. He closed his eyes and let out a sigh of relief as he let his head rest against the cold floor. 

The new angle wasn’t the best for escape plans but with Reverb gone, it should be easier. He would escape and get help, get to Barry and Wells and they’ll make sure Reverb’s vision comes true. There was no way he was leaving Hartley in this place, no matter what universe or time line that Hartley was from. No one deserved this.

He could save him though, he could do that, at least.

Cisco started to twist his wrists against the zip ties, tugging at the same time to try and weaken them.

There was a yelp of pain in the next room and Cisco froze, listening. There was the sound of a slap and the creaking of a bed as someone fell onto it.

Oh, god…

“H-hey!” Cisco yelled out, tugging harder at the restraints. “Hey, leave him alone!”

There was more sounds of flesh hitting flesh, the rip of fabric, whimpers and yelps, growls.

“Hey, fuckface!” Cisco screamed now, jerking hard at the chair so that the wooden chair scrapped against the cement. “Come out here and fight me, you coward!”

The sounds continued but changed from the sound of fists hitting into something else, still flesh on flesh but more consistent and more… the bed started creaking in a way that left nothing to the imagination.

And Cisco knew what must be happening, just a few yards away from him. He was out here, tied to a fucking chair while someone was being… was being… He felt tears start to burn in his eyes and he bite his lip hard as he pulled as hard as he could at the zip ties, feeling them cutting into his skin, hard enough to draw blood.

This couldn’t be happening, this couldn’t be happening, he couldn’t help him, he was trapped, this can’t be happening.

There was a loud groan in the other room and Cisco finally lost the battle with his stomach. A small rush of vomit climbed his throat and, with a grimace, he swallowed it back down. There was no way in hell he was letting that monster see him laying in his own vomit.

“Come on, Vibe,” Cisco croaked to himself, his throat and nose stinging from the bile and his vision blurring with tears. “You can do this… he needs you right now. Gotta stop him.”

Gritting his teeth, Cisco pulled at the plastic zip ties and, with a painful yank, he pulled his hand free.

“Yes!” Cisco hissed softly, ignoring the blood around his wrist as he reached over to start pulling at the second tie. He managed to get his fingers under it and pulled it up with his fingers as he did the same with his wrist. He pulled his arm free with slightly less pain than the first time.

Cisco clambered to his knees and started to stand. He had barely gotten one foot under him when he heard a voice he had hoped he wouldn’t.

“And where do you think you’re going?” 

Reverb stepped in front of him. Cisco’s stomach turned, seeing the other man’s pants were undone though, thankfully, he had tucked himself away after… after what he’d done.

Before Cisco could do anything further, Reverb’s hand shot out and a blast of energy hit Cisco full in the chest. He flew back and crashed into the cement wall a few feet away, the energy waves keeping him in place.

“I’m going easy on you,” Reverb said, walking forward as he reached behind him. He pulled out a pair of handcuffs, the glowing LEDs on the wrists hinting that there was something more to them. “I could shred your insides to nothing with just a thought. I could shatter your bones and make your heart burst in your chest… but you still have something I want and I intend to get them.”

He lowered his hand and Cisco dropped to the floor. Cisco’s mouth filled with blood as his teeth bit into his tongue. Before he could recover, Reverb was there, slapping the cuffs onto his wrists.

Reverb grabbed Cisco’s upper right arm and pulled him to his feet.

“You made a mistake, Vibe,” Reverb said, walking him past the chair on the floor and to the door. “Or you’re going to. Whichever. It’s a shame, really. We could have had such fun together.”

Cisco was dragged into the room and he almost threw up again.

Hartley was curled up on the bed, the shirt he had been wearing before in shreds on the floor by the bed. His cheek was bright red from being struck and the cut on his lip had reopened. Without the shirt to hide his body, Cisco could see just how thin the other man was, could see all the bruises and scars that covered the pale, freckled skin. Hartley was staring at the opposite wall, not looking at either Cisco. Cisco tried very hard not to look at Hartley below the waist, he was afraid of what he’d see there.

“You’re a fucking monster,” Cisco growled and tried to yank his arm away from Reverb.

“You’re a fool,” Reverb scoffed. He pushed Cisco hard, shoving him onto the bed beside Hartley. The other man barely registered him, only curling up tighter.

“Hartley Rathaway is mine, Vibe,” Reverb said, standing at the foot of the bed to glower down at both of them. “And once my deal with Zoom is done with, I’m going to go collect your Hartley as well. I’d prefer the spitfire one you so enjoyed hurting once upon a time but I think I’d enjoy your current version just as well. I want to see how long it’ll take him to realize his lover never came home to him, that the man beating him isn’t the one he loves.” Reverb sneered. “Then I’ll bring him home so you can watch me break him too.”

“Don’t you touch him,” Cisco said, struggling to sit up in the bed. Beside him, Hartley curled up even further, his arms that were already wrapped around himself tightening as well. Cisco stopped moving and stared down at Earth 2 Hartley. He was afraid, possibly of him but definitely of Reverb. He was in pain and he was afraid and… and he looked so much like Hartley, his Hartley. “Hey, it’s alright…”

Over them, Reverb scoffed. Cisco ignored him.

Hartley didn’t look at him and Cisco remembered what Reverb had said… he remembered the scar in Hartley’s ear. He pushed back the rush of anger and disgust as he reached out to gently touch Hartley’s shoulder, trying to avoid the bruises he saw growing there. Hartley’s eyes flickered up at him and they were dead, dull and accepting. Those eyes stared up at Cisco, the lashes wet, and he just looked at him…

Then they cleared… then they brightened.

“No!” 

Reverb realized his mistake a few vital seconds after Hartley did.

Moving with a speed that was surprising for his condition, Hartley grabbed Cisco’s hand and pulled it toward the collar. He pressed Cisco’s thumb against the lock on the front and then the collar was in Cisco’s hand, open and still warm from Hartley’s skin.

Cisco didn’t even have time to wonder at this before Hartley started screaming.

“STOP!”

A music Cisco had never heard before filled his head and he couldn’t move. 

His heart hammering in his chest and the collar in his hand, he watched, frozen, as Hartley scrambled off the bed and to his feet. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Reverb standing where they had left him, his arm reached out and his face stuck in a snarl.

Through the music - so beautiful - Cisco could hear Hartley speaking, saying the word ‘stop’ over and over again.

As Cisco watched, Hartley took a step forward, toward Reverb, but he swayed and had to grab onto a bedpost to stop himself from falling. The music was starting to fade in Cisco’s head but Hartley kept talking.

“Stop,” Hartley said again, staring at Reverb, his eyes burning with something that could only be complete and utter hatred. “Stop… stop breathing. Stop _beating_ ,” Hartley hissed the words, tears starting to drip from his eyes. 

The music faded away and Cisco sat up on the bed to see Reverb was still trapped in the song, unable to move. His face was paling rapidly, almost turning blue. The man’s body was starting to shake and there was fear in those dark eyes.

Stop beating, Hartley had said, and, Cisco was starting to realize, Reverb’s heart was obeying.

“ _Stop living_ ,” Hartley finally hissed, the words barely audible, but it was enough.

Cisco watched in horror as his doppelganger, the man who had kidnapped and beat him, the man who had tortured this world Hartley Rathaway for Cisco didn’t know how long, fell to his knees. Cisco watched as all color left Francisco Ramon’s face and his body fell to the floor, limp and lifeless, as the music had nothing to influence anymore.

Beside him, Hartley let out a soft sob and fell to his knees beside the bed.

It was finally over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to say, in case people missed it in the tags, Hart's not going to recover easily from this. JSYK

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I can't really leave it there so there's a second part coming. I just needed to get this up in time for the challenge and this made for a very nice stopping point.


End file.
